Brittany Internet in France has selected what we believe to be the very best Content Management System available on the market - DotNetNuke

We provide the DotNetNuke Content Management Systems with custom designed skins to reflect a new or existing website design - we can take pretty much any existing website design and incorporate it almost exactly into our content management system. Often the only difference is that there is a login link on the page!

What is a Content Management System, or CMS?

It maybe obvious but perhaps it should be said that a content management system is quite simply - a system that manages content.

It is the obviousness of what a Content Management System/CMS is and can do, that has created a certain amount of confusion amongst potential purchases of such a system. Wrapped up in a seemingly harmless statement is enough ambiguity to enable all kinds of products to masquerade as content management solutions.

To understand what a content management system/CMS actually does, we have to first define :

what are we referring to when we talk about content?

what does management mean in terms of CMS?

what do we mean by a system?

What is ContentManagement System?

Content is in essence, any type or 'unit' of digital information. It can be text, images, graphics, video, sound, documents, records etc - or in other words - anything that is likely to be managed in an electronic format.

What is ContentManagementSystem?

Content Management is effectively the management of the content described above, by combining rules, process and/or workflows in such a way that its electronic storage is deemed to be 'managed' rather than 'un-managed'.

What is theContent ManagementSystem?

The system itself is definable as a tool or combination of tools that facilitate the efficient and effective production of the desired 'output' using the managed content.

To combine all three, we can say;

"A Content Management System/CMS is a tool that enables a variety of (centralised) technical and (de-centralised) non technical staff to create, edit, manage and finally publish (in a number of formats) a variety of content (such as text, graphics, video, documents etc), whilst being constrained by a centralised set of rules, process and workflows that ensure coherent, validated electronic content."

In non technical terms a content management system allows you to update your website from any computer connected to the Internet without the need for HTML/programming skills or specialist software. All you need is Internet Explorer or Firefox and an Internet connected computer.

Content Management System Benefits

Web design customers are more sophisticated these days. They have a clearer understanding of how they want their websites to perform, and the functions that must be built in to make it possible. We at brittanyinternet.com are routinely building 90% or more of all new websites with an installed Content Management System (CMS). A Content Management System provides a number of benefits to our clients:

Content Management Systems allow any number of individuals (authors) within a business to add, edit and delete content pages. They can usually learn how to operate a Content Management System (CMS) in a half hour or less.

The design of the website cannot be "broken' or altered by any content author. All content and links are automatically generated in page layouts that are pre-installed by the web designer. Pre-installed style sheets are used to control the formatting of text.

The website becomes truly dynamic and stays up-to-date. Fresh content can be added through any Web enabled computer anywhere in the world. All content is maintained through a Web browser, there are no additional software requirements. This reduces software licensing and hardware costs for the business owner. Also, authors can maintain their website from anywhere in the world (with Internet access).

The design of the website can be changed at any time without affecting the content. Because a CMS separates the web design and content management functions, designers and content managers can operate independently on the same website without "getting in each others way."

At Brittany-Internet.com we use DotNetNuke DNN to manage our content as well. It is also one of the tools we use for many of our clients content management requirements. The benefits are clear. The client does not need to hire or contract a webmaster to manage their website. With minimal training, each department easily author and add articles and other content to the website. Because content authors cannot alter web page design, the website maintains a polished appearance. As these tools continue to develop, we will pass on the benefits to our clients.